Search Publications

Confirmation of the magnetic nature of the delta Scuti star HD 21190

Hubrig, S.; Scholler, M.

HD 21190 is a known delta Scuti star showing Ap star characteristics and a variability period of 3.6h discovered by the Hipparcos mission. Our previous spectropolarimetric observations with FORS1 at the VLT showed the presence of a rather weak magnetic field of the order of a few tens of Gauss. New spectropolarimetric measurements with FORS2 at th…

A Statistical Study of the Plasma Sheet in the Near and Middle Earth Magnetotail

Pu, Zu-Yin; Fu, Sui-Yan; Shi, Quan-Qi +5 more

Magnetotail plasma sheet is the most active area in Earth's magnetosphere. It has been found that the features of plasma sheet are controlled by the conditions of solar wind and Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF). Some previous statistical studies have found that some parameters of the plasma sheet are dawn-dusk asymmetric. But the thickness of t…

Digging process in NGC 6951: the molecular disc bumped by the jet

Ricci, T. V.; Steiner, J. E.; May, D. +2 more

We present a study of the central 200 pc of the galaxy NGC 6951, SAB(rs)bc, an active twin of the Milky Way, at a distance of 24 Mpc. Its nucleus has been observed in the optical with the Integral Field Unit of the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph, showing an outflow, and with the HST/ACS, revealing two extended structures with similar orientation…

New insights into the quasi-periodic X-ray burster GS 0836-429

Sánchez-Fernández, C.; Kuulkers, E.; Aranzana, E.

GS 0836-429 is a neutron star X-ray transient that displays Type-I X-ray bursts. In 2003 and 2004 it experienced two outbursts in X-rays. We present here an analysis of the system's bursting properties during these outbursts. We studied the evolution of the 2003-2004 outbursts in soft X-rays using RXTE (2.5-12 keV; ASM) and in hard X-rays with INT…

The Philae Lander: Science planning and operations

Bibring, Jean-Pierre; Jurado, Eric; Ulamec, Stephan +13 more

Rosetta is an ambitious mission launched in March 2004 to study comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It is composed of a space probe (Rosetta) and the Philae Lander. The mission is a series of premieres: among others, first probe to escort a comet, first time a landing site is selected with short turnaround time, first time a lander has landed on a co…

Pseudomagnitude distances: Application to the Pleiades cluster

Duvert, G.; Chelli, A.

The concept of pseudomagnitude has recently been introduced to estimate apparent stellar diameters using a strictly observational methodology. Pseudomagnitudes are distance indicators which have the remarkable property of being reddening free. In this study, we use Hipparcos parallax measurements to compute the mean absolute pseudomagnitudes of so…

Atomic scattering factor of the ASTRO-H (Hitomi) SXT reflector around the gold's L edges

Maeda, Yoshitomo; Ishida, Manabu; Okajima, Takashi +14 more

Potential role of kinetic Alfvén waves and whistler waves in solar wind plasmas

Goldstein, M. L.; Sharma, R. P.; Nandal, P. +1 more

Spacecraft observations indicate the signatures of highly oblique kinetic Alfvén waves (KAWs) and whistler waves in the solar wind plasma. In the present work, we explore the possible role of KAWs and whistler waves in the observed solar wind magnetic turbulent spectrum. The nonlinear spatial evolution of KAW is studied including the effects of th…

The thin and medium filters of the EPIC camera on-board XMM-Newton: measured performance after more than 15 years of operation

Tiengo, Andrea; Barbera, Marco; Gastaldello, Fabio +9 more

After more than 15 years of operation of the EPIC camera on board the XMM-Newton X-ray observatory, we have reviewed the status of its Thin and Medium filters. We have selected a set of Thin and Medium back-up filters among those still available in the EPIC consortium and have started a program to investigate their status by different laboratory m…

Discovery of an X-Ray-emitting Contact Binary System 2MASS J11201034-2201340

Chen, W. P.; Kong, Albert K. H.; Ip, Wing-Huen +10 more

We report the detection of orbital modulation, a model solution, and the X-ray properties of a newly discovered contact binary, Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) J11201034-2201340. We serendipitously found this X-ray point source outside the error ellipse when searching for possible X-ray counterparts of γ-ray millisecond pulsars among the unident…